Infrastructure $5.4 million in funding announced in Grand Bay-Westfield

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ANDREW MCGILLIGAN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

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GRAND BAY-WESTFIELD - With the St. John River serving as a backdrop, Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Grace Losier, MLA Jack Keir and MP Greg Thompson announced that $5.4 million of infrastructure funding is set to flow into town.

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Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-Journal

Provincial Energy Minister and local MLA Jack Keir, left, N.B. Southwest MP Greg Thompson and Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Grace Losier were all smiles after Saturday’s funding announcement.

The announcement was made Saturday at the Brundage Point River Centre in Grand Bay-Westfield. All three levels of government announced they would share in the cost of constructing a collector road from Highway 7 to the downtown core of the municipality off Highland Road.

Keir said he and Thompson, along with the town, have been working on the project for more than two years. The New Brunswick Energy Minister said the road will help the town grow.

"I think the business case for this project is going to pay off very quickly," Keir said. "It will open up a lot of land that's currently inaccessible to the town for future development, both commercially and residentially."

Losier said the announcement will spark development in Grand Bay-Westfield.

"I know there's a lot of interest in that area for us," she said. "We guaranteed today a commercial collector road and I mentioned there's 400 acres owned by six different individuals who will come to town with their own plans."

Losier said tender documents for the construction of the road will be drawn up immediately and expects the project to be finished next year.

"The project has a two-year window. We expect the base of the road to be completed by this winter and asphalt and the rest by the end of next year," Losier said. "We'll have a brand new road off the highway by (2010)."

In addition to the new collector road, land has already been cleared to build ramps to connect the Highland Road overpass to Highway 7. Keir said the approximately $5-million project was committed to by Premier Shawn Graham during the 2006 provincial election and construction should begin shortly.

Keir said after the commitment was made, Losier approached him and remarked a collector road would be needed to support the ramps and that the province would need to help with funding. Keir said he went immediately to Thompson and the project culminated Saturday with the announcement.

"We had to convince the provincial government to invest in those off ramps because you can't build a road to go nowhere and we didn't want to congest River Valley Drive," the mayor said. "They can't open the ramps until the (collector road) is finished, but they're doing the construction this year and that's step one."

During the announcement Thompson remarked that he and Keir will be busy in the weeks and months to come making similar announcements. However, he didn't offer specifics as to which projects or communities should be expecting an influx of federal and provincial funding.

"There's a lot of announcements that are all pending and we're working through those," Thompson said. "Over time we'll get those out the door.

"We've focused a lot of attention on infrastructure money we budgeted for. The money is there and we're working with the province to roll out some of that stimulus funding."